a little less sixteen candles, a little more black magic
by necking
Summary: Kimberly Hart was painfully hot, and normally, that'd be enough for Trini to have a huge crush on her, but Kimberly Hart was also a bitch. She was surprised she'd only come to this conclusion recently, but this time was the last straw. day 5 of trimberly week: crossover AU; power rangers (2017 x wizards of waverly place x sixteen candles)


Kimberly Hart was _painfully_ hot, and normally, that'd be enough for Trini to have a huge crush on her, but Kimberly Hart was also a _bitch_. She was surprised she'd only come to this conclusion recently, but this time was the last straw.

It started out small and controlled, only incidents occurring in the one class they shared- biology class.

The first time could've easily been a mistake.

They'd been paired up as lab partners for a project, and Trini had been absent the day it'd been assigned, so naturally, she turned to Kim for instruction. The girl seemed to be _terrible_ at bio, so they'd split up the work in what seemed to be Trini with all the difficult work, while Kim received all the easy work.

In the end, Kim had received an easy 90, while Trini begrudgingly accepted her 68.

Trini had initially given her the benefit of the doubt, chalking it up to poor team communication, what with Kim giving her the wrong formatting rubric, etc., etc., but on the pop quiz the next day, Kim received a 90 _again_ , and Trini couldn't help but feel a little bit suspicious about Kim lying about her academic abilities.

The second time it happened, though, Trini could only blame herself for trusting Kim's unfairly cute face when she had given Trini the wrong study guide to their quarter term bio test. This urged her to snap out of her infatuation for the cheerleader.

She hadn't fully accepted her dislike for Kim until she sabotaged Trini's plans to build a science club, which she was meant to lead with Tommy Oliver.

With the team they had, Trini was confident they were going to make it to nationals, and even though Trini had her doubts about the handsome jock that was Tommy Oliver, she had high hopes.

But then Kim had to swoop in and convince Tommy to join the football team, causing Trini's team be a member too short to even try out for regionals, (and who would even be willing to join the science club to take over a co-head position?) and then Trini was absolutely _sure_ Kim was out to get her.

Considering Trini was a wizard, all of this should've been easy to fix.

But, unfortunately for her, Billy Cranston, her wizarding mentor, also attended school with her disguised as a fellow student, so using magic for her own benefit wasn't really in the cards for her.

Or so Billy believed.

Although she was considered a stereotypical nerd, Trini had also never been a proper stickler for the rules, and that was how she found herself sneaking into Billy's wizarding lair to 'borrow' his dream helmet.

"Sorry Bill," she muttered under her breath as she grabbed the helmet from the top shelf of his study, "but I just wanna talk."

And with that, she disappeared from the room with a quick wave of her wand.

Trini looked up from staring blankly at her bio notes to look once more at the clock on her nightstand. _1:30am_ , it read. Deeming that an appropriate time for any _sane_ high school student to be asleep at on a Tuesday night, she rubbed her eyes tiredly and tucked her binder away into her bookbag.

She plopped back down on her bed, only to roll over and reach under her bed for the dream helmet.

Shutting her eyes tightly and taking in a deep breath, she whispered to herself, " _here_ _goes_ _nothing_ ," and placed the helmet over her head.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself confused by the setting she was in.

She was in her bio class, Ms. Appleby droning on about molecular organisms or something of the like. The only difference was, she was seated beside Kim instead of the back of the class, and her right hand seemed to be interlaced with… _Kim's_?

"Fuck no," Trini startled, snatching her hand away from the now bewildered cheerleader.

Shaking her head to snap out of the strange contact, Trini stood up quickly from her seat. " _You_ ," she pointed at Kim, her outburst not being registered by anyone else in the class except for the girl in question, "why the _fuck_ would you steal Tommy away from the science club? He was our _only_ shot at winning nationals!"

"Oh my God, I'm sorry, I really didn't think of it that way," Kim apologized, looking uncharacteristically sorry, "I'm sorry again."

Trini softened immediately, not having expected Kim to be so _civil_. "Then why did you? Or, let me rephrase that question," she corrected herself, "why do you keep trying to sabotage me?"

"Um, I-I don't know," Kim stuttered, looking like a deer caught in headlights, and the walls around them started to pulse, with every shake the sound of a bass drum sounded, "because you're _gay_?"

But before Trini could even properly respond, the dream disintegrated from around them, and Trini felt herself being sucked back into reality.

Kim woke up with a start, her heart pounding like she'd just run a dozen drills at cheer practice.

She wiped her palms on her blanket before shielding her eyes from the sun pouring in through her window.

 _That was a weird dream- nightmare?_

Trini had just settled into bio class when a flash of pink walked in right as the bell rang.

This wasn't an abnormal occurrence- Kimberly Hart was _never_ late, always opting to show up at the very last second so she was still fashionably late, but still somehow on time. It used to impress Trini, and then later annoy her, until she realized it was impractical to roll her eyes every time Kim did something slightly over the top.

What was abnormal, however, was how instead of the cheerleader moving to sit at the seat closest to the door, she made a beeline for the shorter girl, causing her to look up from her notes.

"I'm sorry for taking Tommy away from your club," Kim had said, after she'd dropped her books onto the desk in the back next to Trini's, "I just didn't want to be Ty Fleming's cheerleader anymore, you know, since we-"

"Broke up," Trini interrupted, surprised that Kim was apologizing, but still upset over Kim's apparent homophobia, "I know."

She shifted awkwardly in her seat, and spoke so quietly, Trini was unsure if she'd uttered the words at all, "I can fill up his space, if you want?"

Trini scrutinized her face, looking for any signs of malice, and after finding none, sighed heavily. "Thanks, but it's too late to sign up for nationals now."

And with that, Ms. Appleby started the lecture, shutting the two of them up effectively.

The final bell had rung over ten minutes ago, and Trini was still at her locker packing her books into her bag, still shaken up from the strange conversation she had with Kim earlier in class.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she outright flinched when a body had collided noisily into the locker next to hers. A tall boy with high cheekbones and dark hair was the source of the sound, and he grinned cockily down at her as he leaned against the lockers.

 _Zack_ _Taylor_ , Trini dimly remembered in the back of her mind. He was one of Billy's friends, but she'd never formally met him.

"Zack Taylor," he introduced himself confidently, sticking his hand out to shake hers.

"... Trini," she answered back politely, still confused as to why he was talking to her. Although they shared Billy and Jason as a mutual friend, Zack was a jock on the soccer team, so they definitely did not run in the same circles.

"So, uh," he started, crossing his arms over his chest in what Trini assumed to be him trying to look bigger, "what're you doing after school? Because I've got some _meat here that's 'best if used by tonight,_ ' if you know what I mean."

Trini cringed at his forwardness- he wasn't bad to look at, if you were into that sort of thing, but, he wasn't really _her_ _type_. "Um, you know I'm gay, right?" She questioned, shutting her locker and shrugging her backpack onto her shoulders.

His face fell. He stood up from his relaxed position, now looking very uncomfortable. "Oh, that's a little bit awkward," he scratched the back of his neck, "um, how long have you been out? If that's okay for me to ask," he added quickly, not wanting to offend her further.

"Since forever," she raised her hand and tapped the button on her right backpack strap, "see?"

He stared at her confused, unsure if this was a trick to get him to stare at her chest. Hesitantly, he dropped his gaze from her face to read the button. 'Nobody knows I'm a lesbian,' it read.

"Oh…" he trailed off, backing away slowly from Trini down the hall, "I'm just... gonna… go before this gets even more awkward."

"Sounds good," Trini chuckled, dismissing him easily, and made her way to the exit opposite where Zack left.

"Wait, shut up about _Bobby_ for a second, Jason," Kim said, using her hand to cover Jason's mouth to prevent him from gushing on and on about some boy named _Bobby_ _Cramston_. She watched discreetly from behind Jason's overly large body as Zack Taylor walked away disappointedly from Trini.

"Mmf, it's _Billy_ ," Jason corrected, his voice muffled by Kim's hand, "and what're you doing?"

"You know Zack Taylor, right?"

He nodded.

"Okay, bring him over here. I just wanna talk," she said, removing her hand from his mouth.

He gave her a strange look, but complied anyway.

"Yo, Zack!" Jason called over to the soccer player, waving him over.

"Jace, Kim," Zack greeted, once he'd joined their small circle, "what's up?"

Jason shrugged when Zack looked at him, and pointed at Kim. "Dunno, she said she wanted to talk to you."

"Saw you talking to Trini," she remarked, ignoring Jason almost completely, and Zack nodded glumly, "what do you know about her?"

Zack looked pained, and embarrassed, and scratched the bottom of his elbow to stall, "I know that I just tried to ask her out," Kim inhaled sharply, trying to ignore her rising jealousy, "but that she's _gay_?"

The cheerleader's eyes widened, realizing she didn't have to jealously steal Tommy (Katherine Hillard practically _begged_ her to trade Jason Scott for Ty Fleming) away from the science club after all.

"What?" She asked, much too interested in this information to be considered straight.

"My reaction exactly," Zack sighed, looking defeated from the sudden blow to his very high ego.

Jason looked between the two of them, before laughing. "You guys didn't know that? She's literally in the GSA with Billy and I."

Kim's eyes widened even more somehow, and she grabbed Jason by the collar. "So you're _sure_ she's gay?"

"Yes," Jason said, releasing Kim's grip from his shirt and gave her a worried look. "Kim, I think you need to tone down your slightly obsessive bi attraction on her- it's going to scare her off."

Zack nodded, agreeing after he'd watched the scenario unfold in front of him.

She waved them off, before speaking again. "So which one of you has her number?"

The boys shared an ' _is_ _she_ _serious_?' look before sharing a laugh.

Trini had her earbuds plugged into her ears, heavy metal blasting at full volume in a poor attempt to drown out her thoughts.

 _Her thoughts about Kimberly Hart being homophobic._

Normally, she wouldn't be one to waste so much time on someone who definitely wasn't worth it, but she couldn't stop sulking, and the music was just loud enough for her to not question why that was so.

She was so focused on trying to decide on what to listen to next, when she bumped into a solid mass of… _leather_?

"Hey," leather-mass said, as Trini paused her music. "Sorry if I scared you. I was trying to call your name, but your music was too loud."

"Zack," Trini greeted, trying not to frown as she watched him get off of his bike seat to stand next to his bike, "please don't hit on me again."

He grimaced, his entire face reddening, no traces of the former-badboy-player that he once was. "Actually, I was just biking by, and stopped when I saw you- to apologize for earlier," he explained. "So, uh, sorry for being so vulgar."

Trini furrowed her brow. _What was up with all the popular kids starting to acknowledge her, and apologizing for their behaviour?_ "Oh," she said, taken aback from his sudden character development, "it's whatever, I guess."

He beamed at her half-assed acceptance. "Great," and he knew it was a stretch, but he tried anyway, "friends?"

"Sure," she said, sidestepping his bike on sidewalk and resuming her journey as if he hadn't been there at all.

Surprised at her answer, he stood on the sidewalk for a bit, until he properly registered her words and jogged after her, his bike still at his side.

"What's wrong?" He asked, easily keeping up with her pace.

Trini smiled, but there was no humour in it. "How do you know something's wrong? You don't even know me."

"You agreed to be my friend," he said, simply.

She laughed at that, before nodding to agree with him. "Alright, that's fair," she conceded, finally taking her earbuds out of her ear, "Kimberly Hart fucking sucks, and she's a homophobe."

Zack nearly tripped over his own two feet, his bike protesting as he leaned against it to regain his balance. _If only you knew how wrong you were,_ he thought, trying not to laugh at the irony of it all.

" _Really_?" He coughed, clearing his throat to cover his chuckle, "that's uh- _weird_ , considering she asked me about you."

Trini turned to look at him then, her full attention suddenly on him. "She did?" A fluttering feeling went off in her stomach, but she tried not to think too much about it.

"Yeah, and, uh, I may have told her you were gay-"

"- _What_?" She cut him off, stopping in her tracks.

He froze, alarmed at the sudden outburst, and then realized Trini didn't know that Kim probably had the _biggest_ crush on her.

"I'm sorry, I thought you said you were out!" He apologized quickly, realizing how terrible it would be to out someone.

"I _am_!" Trini sputtered, her calm demeanor gone from her current freakout. "But she's _popular_ and _homophobic_ and _could ruin my life!_ "

"Whoa, whoa," Zack said, raising his arms in surrender as he tried to calm her down, "listen. As weird as this sounds, she seemed very… _supportive_ of it," he continued, trying not to chuckle at _how_ _supportive_ she'd been, "like, _she-asked-for-your-number_ kind of supportive."

"Oh."

And then she was silent for a bit, still trying to process the fact that Kim was _interested_ in _her_. Maybe not in the crush way, but _interested_.

"I am sorry though," he said, "for both things- the gross pick up line, and… outing you."

"Thanks," she finally said, seemingly back to her normal self, "you still suck though."

She punched him in the arm, hard enough to bruise, dismissing him, and walked away.

This time, Zack didn't follow her.

It was only 10pm when Trini all but shoved the dream helmet back on her head. (It was a Wednesday night, Kim had cheer practice on Thursday mornings. How Trini knew that, it wasn't important)

She felt the familiar rush of a fluttering in her stomach, and then she closed her eyes, bracing herself for what was to come.

This time, Trini opened her eyes into the school's gym, except instead of the room being lit with fluorescent lights, there were only two spotlights to illuminate the room.

The first was on Kim, unsurprisingly. The other, however, was on Trini.

"Kim!" Trini said, grabbing the cheerleader's attention when their spotlights formed to make one, single large spotlight.

"Oh, hey, Trini, what's good?" Kim greeted her, her facing lighting up when they made eye contact.

Trini gave her a quizzical look, taken aback by how _friendly_ the greeting had been. "Kim, you're dreaming," she told her, as if that would change Kim's behaviour towards her.

"What? No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are," Trini insisted, wanting to move on to ask all the questions she had for Kim, "do something that you've always wanted to do, but couldn't do in real life."

"Um, okay," and then a look of concentration passed over her face, and the gym faded from around them.

Suddenly, they were in a familiar restaurant, the smell of sugar and coffee invading Trini's nose. She was seated in a booth, while Kim was on a chair.

"Why are we in a Krispy Kreme?" Trini asked, after she'd finished surveying her surroundings.

Kim looked mesmerized, still amazed at the utter control she had over changing the scenery.

"Kim?" Trini questioned, snapping her fingers in her face.

"Huh? _Oh_ ," the cheerleader said, snapping out of daze. "Um, I don't know, to be honest- it was the first date location I could think of."

Trini blushed at the statement, but quickly pushed down the feeling, and covered her slip up with a laugh. "The first time I had a lucid dream, I was in a cool superhero team called the _Power_ _Rangers_."

"I didn't even think of that," Kim chuckled, the thought finally coming to her. "I've just been wanting to take you on a date for so long it was my immediate reaction to ' _do_ _whatever_ _you_ _want_.'"

She blushed again, but this time it wasn't as easily hidden. "Then why're you so mean to me at school?"

"I'm sorry, my bad- I'm just really bad at playing it cool so I just come off as rude," she apologized.

"W-why would you need to play it cool?" Trini stuttered, even though she knew the answer. She needed to make sure.

"Because you're _hot_ and I have a huge crush on you and I don't wanna seem too thirsty?" Kim said, as if the answer should've been obvious.

The shorter girl stayed silent this time, too overwhelmed by all of Kim's bold admissions.

"Also, it's hard to resist being awkward around you, since you make me feel too conscious of myself," she continued, not paying attention to Trini's reaction.

"Sorry, my bad," Trini apologized, unsure of what to say to that.

Kim shrugged. "Not your fault that you're hot."

And then the walls around them disintegrated again, no shaking walls to warn Trini of being pushed away outside of Kim's dream.

Instead of being startled awake, Kim woke up naturally, the light from her window stinging her eyes.

She sat up gingerly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes while still thinking about her dream about Trini.

 _I need to talk to Zack again._

The second she saw Zack lingering outside of his first period English class with a hall pass in his hands, Kim immediately zeroed in on him and dragged him into the door opposite of the classroom, which happened to be the _girls_ ' washroom.

"Kim, I can't be caught in here _again_ -" Zack started, moving to make his exit.

"-have you learned anything new about Trini?" Kim interrupted him, blocking his way to the door. She locked the door with her right hand, not taking her eyes off his face as she did so.

Zack stared at the movement, and then gave her an ' _are_ _you_ _serious_ ' look. When she only crossed her arms to confirm how _serious_ she was, he sighed.

"Since _yesterday after school_?" He questioned sarcastically, letting the frivolity of the question hit Kim.

"Oh." She looked away, feeling sheepish.

The soccer player laughed heartily, amused by her behaviour. "Surprisingly, _yes_ ," he continued, "she thought you were homophobic."

She broke eye contact with him then, looking down to the side. "This is literally the worst case scenario," she muttered under her breath, speaking to herself. Then, she looked back up at him and unlocked the door behind her. "Thanks, Zack."

"No problem-" he started, but she was already gone, leaving Zack alone in the wrong washroom.

Kimberly Hart had never been so anxious for biology class, not even when she'd found out the midterm exam's date the day of.

She'd been preparing herself to tell Trini that she _wasn't_ homophobic, and was _almost_ just the opposite of that, when she remembered that all her classes after lunch (including bio) were cancelled.

"Fuck," she cursed, when she remembered that student council had planned for a dance-a-thon in the gym.

Normally, Kim and her friends would skip the dance and classes altogether, but from what she knew of Trini, the shorter girl didn't seem like the type to meet with the rest of the juniors at Krispy Kreme, and would probably be at the dance.

Cursing again, she waved her friends off when they invited her over to Krispy Kreme, and instead made her way to the gym.

She would never be caught dead calling herself a _romantic_ , or having _feelings_ at _all_ , but when Kim saw a Trini standing off to the side in her signature yellow bomber and tight black jeans, the cheerleader couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming.

Unsure of if she was in reality, she willed for the song to change from generic house music into _'if you were here,'_ and smirked to cover the corniness of it all when the song changed. Another thing she'd never admit: she was a _huge_ fan of _Sixteen_ _Candles_.

Smoothing down her shirt, she made her way over to Trini in quick strides, almost at a power walk, but not quite.

"Hey," she greeted, when Trini looked up at Kim's sudden presence.

"Hey," Trini said back, surprised to see Kim at the _dance-a-thon_. Despite the secrets she'd discovered about Kim, she figured all the popular kids ditched these kinds of events for _God-knows-what_.

"So, you're back," Kim grinned, looking shamelessly excited, "I've been trying so hard to dream about you for the past few weeks, it's insane."

Trini was stunned. She didn't realize the extent of Kim's crush. "Oh.. like how?" She asked, unsure of what to say.

"I don't know, like thinking about you before going to sleep, checking your social media and shit- which you should update _more_ , by the way," she went on, "I can't keep looking at the same Instagram pictures from three years ago. But you know, just stuff like that."

The shorter girl laughed, amused at the cheerleader's admission. "Kim, you know you're not dreamin-?"

"-anyway, I can't believe you thought I was _homophobic_ \- I'm _bi_ , which is the complete _almost_ opposite- anyway, _wow_ , I am _so_ gay for _you_ ," Kim rambled on, clearly hyped from the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she spilled her deepest secrets. She was just surprised she wasn't 'awake' yet.

Trini was silent, surprised at the lengthy speech and how honest it was.

"Uh, thanks," she said eventually, her cheeks now uncomfortably red.

"No problem," Kim said, breathing a sigh of relief. "It just feels really good to vent this all out."

Trini nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, it's kind of a surprise, if I'm being honest. Maybe if you'd started actually talking to me earlier, we might already be a thing."

"Maybe," Kim chuckled, sounding doubtful. "But then again, this is just my subconscious talking."

Trini couldn't contain herself after that, having been reminded that Kim still thought she was dreaming. "You know you're not dreaming, right?"

"What? Yes I am," she insisted, "I made the song change to _The_ _Thompson_ _Twins_ when I walked in."

"The DJ mentioned he would start playing the _Sixteen_ _Candles_ soundtrack earlier to get people to slow dance," Trini pointed out.

" _What_?" And then she pinched her arm, still believing she was dreaming.

When nothing changed around her, her eyes widened. " _Shit_."

"So is this gonna make you awkward again?" Trini asked, barely holding back a laugh.

Not used to being embarrassed, Kim decided to own up to it, and figured she couldn't fall any deeper down the hole. "Well, I mean, you're still hot, so is it so crazy if I find myself trying my best not to embarrass myself in front of you?"

The shorter girl blushed in earnest now, her face visibly red despite the darkness of the gym. She was too flustered to think of a proper witty reply, like _'well, I'd say you thoroughly embarrassed yourself just now.'_

"Maybe I'd find your embarrassing moments cute if you would actually talk to me," she said instead.

"We're talking _now_ \- does that make me cute?"

Trini laughed, shaking her head. "Maybe- wanna dance?"

"Yeah," Kim agreed, relieved that it was all coming together, "let's start there."


End file.
